Lucia's Eyes & Other Stories

"These stories display a masterly range of emotional tones, from ice-hard brilliance to mordant wit to sheer lyricism. Marina Sonkina's characters rise from the page to become people we know and understand, although they live at widely distant points of the compass, spiritual and geographical. It's clear that she loves them all, with a passion that forgives their weaknesses. In ‘Runic Alphabet,' a painter plants a tree that, as it grows, awakens memories of a lost love. In ‘Christmas Tango,' a chance encounter with a drunk in a Montreal bar sparks a new meaning in a man' s life. ‘Carmelita' takes us to a small Mexican town where a Canadian expatriate becomes a victim of his newly acquired wealth. All of these stories reflect Sonkina's erudition, skill and versatility. She is a writer to treasure; she tells memorable tales in succulent, satisfying and elegant prose." - Martha Roth, author, editor.

"Marina Sonkina's stories give us unexpected characters in surreal situations presented with unflinching verisimilitude in prose that is at once forceful, lyrical and filled with scepticism. This is not the stuff of European fiction, nor of the multicultural mainstream in North American post-20th century writing. This is more like Mavis Gallant in reverse,a shrewdly observant fictive sensibility self-transplanted to the New World from the Old." - George Payerle

Author Bio

Born in Moscow, Marina Sonkina taught literature and linguistics at Moscow State University till she escaped - with two then small sons and two suitcases - the Soviet Union. She lived in Toronto and Montreal where she worked as a CBC producer and broadcaster, documentary film researcher and translator. She now shares her time between teaching at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia as well as writing. She has published two collections of short stories and two children's books. Marina lives in Vancouver.